Make it speedy

["Mahoney, John" <JMahoney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>>recently it has come into gm ownership, at least in controlling part.  

No, GM does not own ANY part of AM General.  GM owns the Hummer name and has marketing/distribution responsibility for Hummer vehicles (including H2s assembled by AM General under contract to GM); AMG still handles military sales.

>>
but - backing up - korea happened and reo couldn't ramp up fast
enough, so gm got contracts to make their design as the m135.
<<

Does history repeat?  WWII happened and Bantam couldn't W-O over Ford.

>>
I may be mis-remembering things, but if I remember right from Autoline
Detroit last weekend (maybe the weekend before), GM had an 8 speed
automatic back in the 40's.
<<

Matt can either check his media memory:

http://www.autolinedetroit.tv/autoline/archives_2005.html

or check the old AMC List [!] archives.
 
http://tinyurl.com/bkojf

Penultimate paragraph.  Who knew there was value in -AMC- words?!

>>
I believe the 1940s eight speed was a pair of the old Dual Range Hydramatics back to back in a single case!
<<

Frank was thinking correctly and those were massive things (not easily confused with the 62" Eva Longoria or with the new [about time!] 6L80),

http://www.futurliner.com/trans.htm

but the 8-speed '40s Hydra-matic I mentioned was, of course, a prototype for automotive, not truck, use, so, to some degree, it would have had to fit where GM's iron-case 4-speed that served many cars, from the 1940 Olds and the 1946 Cadillac --- to some Nash, Rambler, and Hudson models built in 1954 and 1955 --- by the new AMC --- could.  (And may have fit where the old-time hot rodders' favorite derivation of it, the Hydrostick, could...) 

http://www.bmracing.com/index.php?id=products&sid=2&cat=4

If you're into the good old things, you should be into what is new, too.

http://www.aisin-aw.co.jp/en/02products/02at/index.html

AFA having or not having need for [more] speed[s], when the firm once found (by Americans less forgiving than you and me) funnier than AMC, when it builds a 7-speed as serious (as seriously Japanese?) as this, 

http://www.seriouswheels.com/top-2005-Renault-Egeus-Concept.htm

however smooth Powerglide was when American life was smooth, sure, and sweet, isn't enough power or glide, unless America can live on history.

Trumping BMW's ZF SMG and M-B's 7G-tronic with one more speed is a good way for Toyota to say, "Look at me!"  CVTs doing more, more simply (and even handling as much torque as an LS, S-class, or 7-series can "curve" out of 4.5 to 7.0 liters), could offer even more ratios and better fuel economy, but, 8 is also a way to say, "No 'one-size-fits-all' here; for all this money, our transmission will customize itself just for -you-!"  

If GM was first to prototype, and Mercedes-Benz was first to patent the modern 8-speed (just how "modern" is it in our ECU world of HYPER CVT?); if, as the song says, "it's not where you start, it's where you finish," the upshot --- or the upshift --- is up to you. 

After Alfred P. Sloan took his first ride in a 1940 Hydra-matic Olds, he wrote, "For fifteen years, I have felt that the gearshift lever had no place in a really modern car [and] I feel very strongly that it is only a matter of time when every car must have this kind of a transmission."

It's 65 years later.  It's time for GM and America to get up to speed.

AFA eight, it's also interesting.  The first automobile was brought to Japan in 1898.  It was a French car, a Panhard-Levassor.  The first US auto exhibition in Japan was in 1903.  Eight American names were shown.

In Japanese, it takes 10 strokes to write "Toyoda" but only 8 to write "Toyota" (and 8 is a good number as the kanji used can mean "infinity" [not unknown to Nissan?] also), so Kiichiro Toyoda chose "Toyota" over Toyoda and hoped for "unlimited possibilities."  His goal is being achieved, but, just like GM, Wal-Mart (or the New York Yankees), hate, fear, and loathing are also seen.  Welcome to America.  We like to build them up and tear them down.  We don't like to put much effort into remembering.

Can you name the 8 American makes from 1903?  Can you buy any in 2005?      

Ah, it's a very different automotive world.  As the picture will show.

http://tinyurl.com/abxpb